Critical Success Factors for Positive User Experience in Hotel Websites: Applying Herzberg's Two Factor Theory for User Experience Modeling

This research presents the development of a critical success factor matrix for increasing positive user experience of hotel websites based upon user ratings. Firstly, a number of critical success factors for web usability have been identified through the initial literature review. Secondly, hotel websites were surveyed in terms of critical success factors identified through the literature review. Thirdly, Herzberg's motivation theory has been applied to the user rating and the critical success factors were categorized into two areas. Finally, the critical success factor matrix has been developed using the two main sets of data.Comment: Journal articl

Sea Power and China's Strategic Choices

China's national goals have shifted from the need to guarantee its survival during the country's revolutionary days to the current state of securing stable economic development. This shift marks a full transition for China, changing from a closed country to a developing one that is irrevocably integrated with the rest of the world. Today, while this subject is a common discourse in scholarly and political circles, the international community is still coming to grips with the meaning and impact of China's evolving role on the world stage. It is not an easy issue and extends beyond economics

Between emancipation and domination: Habermasian reflections on the empowerment and disempowerment of the human subject

Habermas’s ‘linguistic turn’ can be regarded as a systematic attempt to locate the normative foundations of critical theory in the rational foundations of language. This endeavour is motivated by the insight that any theoretical framework that is committed to the emancipation of the human condition needs to identify the normative grounds on which both its critique of social domination and its pursuit of social liberation can be justified. Just as Habermas’s firm belief in the possibility of human emancipation manifests itself in the concept of the ‘ideal speech situation’, his radical critique of human domination cannot be separated from the concept of ‘systematically distorted communication’. Although the significance of these two concepts for Habermas’s communication-theoretic approach to the social has been widely recognised and extensively debated in the literature, their overall importance for a critical theory of human empowerment and disempowerment has hardly been explored in a satisfying manner. Drawing upon Habermas’s communication-theoretic conception of human coexistence, this paper makes a case for the view that a comprehensive critical theory of society needs to account for both the emancipatory and the repressive potentials of language if it seeks to do justice to both the empowering and the disempowering potentials of the subject

Bridging the gap between critical theory and critique of power? Honneth’s approach to ‘social negativity’

In this paper, I will analyze Axel Honneth’s theory against the background of some of the criticisms that Amy Allen levelled against it. His endeavor seems to partially compromise his ability to identify the domineering forms of power that the subject does not acknowledge consciously and affectively. I will argue that, despite some significant limitations, Honneth’s theory has become increasingly able to analyze social negativity since The struggle for recognition. Also, in both defending Honneth’s methodology and delimiting its scope, I aim to contribute to the debate between two understandings of power: power as ‘domination’ and power as ‘constitution’

Accounting for accounting's role in the neoliberalization processes of social housing in England:A Bourdieusian perspective

The file attached to this record is the author's final peer reviewed version. The Publisher's final version can be found by following the DOI link.Abstract This paper seeks to account for how accounting is implicated in the neoliberalization processes of social housing in England. It adopts a processual view which instead of conceptualizing neoliberalism as static and ‘end-state’, views it as a dynamic process of neoliberalization. We draw upon Bourdieu’s notions of field, capital and habitus to frame our study. We focus on reform of the regulation of social housing in England during the period 2006–2016. We show that the process of neoliberalization of social housing in England was instigated by the state’s intervention to change the structure of the field in terms of norms, power relations and positions of players on the field. These changes brought about simultaneous changes in the habitus of the field as well as the structure and habitus of Housing Associations as sub-fields. We demonstrate how these changes create and reproduce a new system of domination where the tenant is the dominated player. We highlight the role accounting played in these changes in terms of being used as a tool by the regulator to achieve social control and drive change within Housing Associations and by the Housing Associations to evidence conformity with the new norms and adaptation

The impact of board governance on director compensation in West African IPO firms

This paper undertakes a unique study of the determinants of corporate governance in the West African developing region and their impact on director compensation. A new measure of director total remuneration is constructed providing a conservative estimate of expropriation of private benefits of control. Using a hand-collected sample of 51 West African IPO firms from 2000 and 2011 we find evidence that increased presence of true independent nonexecutives that are unconnected to CEO or dominant insider groups within firm and nominally independent board level committees are highly associated with expropriation inferring that firm’s with directors engaging in this behavior are more likely to adopt measures indicative of governance best practic

Central Asia's growing partnership with China. EUCAM Working Paper No. 4, 09 October 2009.

Since the start of the 2000s, the China has become an increasingly important player on the Central Asian scene, which until then had been essentially divided between Russia and the US. Beijing has managed to make a massive and multiform entry onto the Central Asian geo-political landscape: it has proven itself a loyal partner on the level of bilateral diplomacy and has succeeded in turning the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) into a regional structure appreciated by its members. China has also become a leading actor in trade as well as in the hydrocarbon sector and infrastructure. This paper focuses on the political and geopolitical impact of Beijing's growing influence, along with the economic implications of the Chinese presence in Central Asia. Moreover, the paper assesses the extent to which this will affect the objectives of the European Union in the region. A final key question debated here is an assessment of possible joint interests of China and the EU in Central Asia

Self and Others: The Work of \u27Care\u27 in Foucault\u27s Care of the Self

Recent discussions on Foucault\u27s work on the care of the self have centred on its apparent excessive individualist focus. Ella Myers for example argues that the practices of the care of the self do not correct the depoliticizing effects of disciplinary power and biopower. Amy Allen takes Foucault to task for his account of the care of the self because the relations with others in Foucault\u27s account are inadequate for the formation of an ethical subject. In this paper I offer an alternative interpretation of Foucault account of the care of the self. I argue that the social and reciprocal dimension in Foucault\u27s account of \u27the care of the self\u27 is more substantive than Foucault\u27s critics permit and self-cultivation in the care of the self need not foreclose possibilities for associative politics